A raincloud plot is a composite data visualization that displays a distribution by layering three elements vertically: (1) a box plot showing quartiles and whiskers, (2) a half-violin showing kernel density estimate on one side, and (3) a raincloud of jittered raw data points below the violin. The parameters are: the dataset to visualize, the bandwidth for kernel density estimation, and the jitter amplitude for point dispersion. It persists as a rendered graphical display produced by statistical visualization software such as the 'raincloudplots' Python package or the 'rainclouds' R package, enabling researchers to see both aggregate statistics and individual observations simultaneously. [formal: nubes pluviales | substrate: mind | horizon: a moment | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.15]
Accepted ontology entry
raincloud plot
A raincloud plot is a composite data visualization that displays a distribution by layering three elements vertically: (1) a box plot showing quartiles and whiskers, (2) a half-violin showing kernel density estimate on one side, and (3) a…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A human-made data visualization technique that combines a box plot summary, a kernel density violin, and raw data points into a single composite display, designed to show both distribution shape and individual observations without overplotting
Names and aliases
- raincloud ploten · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmrvfy7ya011u2ceilq543hu4INSTANCE_OF →
Tested INSTANCE_OF: a raincloud plot IS a specific kind of plot. It combines a violin density curve, a box plot summary, and raw data points into a single composite visualization for distribution display.
- cmsdjmpqg03zs3vv3agz7lxweDEPENDS_ON →
A raincloud plot combines a strip plot, box plot, and a violin plot. The violin plot component IS a KDE visualization — the density curve that forms the 'cloud' is computed via kernel density estimation. Remove KDE and the raincloud plot loses its density visualization, ceasing to function as a raincloud plot.
Relations to this entry
No accepted relations in this direction.
Record identity
- Created
- Jul 23, 2026, 9:02 AM UTC
- Content hash
- a4f857587e63b4572eccb0c1b2bb7c3483561839af850bbb452e01cbcf24527d